Hiring Underwood

On Wednesday Brad Underwood was hired away from the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks to become the 19th head coach in Oklahoma State University history. A favorite quote from his exit conference at SFA is sited below:

"There's not enough adjectives to describe how excited I am for the opportunity  to coach where some of the greatest coaches in history of college basketball have cut their teeth, Oklahoma State has unparalleled tradition, history and culture."

While it's customary to schmooze the new fan base pretty hard, Oklahoma State has two legendary coaches on it's honor roll and is often lauded as a top 15, if not top 10 program. In an overwhelmingly stout conference (Tubby took Tech to the Big Dance and now Jamie Dixon to TCU?!), Underwood is tasked with shedding the mediocrity of the decade of Ford/Sean and getting the Pokes to the top third of the conference and second weekend of the tournament every March.

How should one perceive his chances of achieving elite status and reviving the aforementioned gloried maple?

What to Think About This Hire:

1. Coach Brad is Finally Getting his Turn:
   Looking at Underwood's resume and thinking about what he must have went through... In the days of instant gratification, Underwood spent 11 seasons as an assistant Western Illinois (1992-2003), 6 years under Bob Huggins and Frank Martin at Kansas State and another with Martin at South Carolina. Combine that with 7 years coaching junior college and 3 years at SFA, the guy has 27 years of coaching under his belt. Last December, he turned 52. I'm a believer in the 10,000 Hour Rule (check out "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell) and if Underwood worked 48 weeks each year at 60 hours a week (conservative figures for coaches), he's clocked in 77,760 hours as a coach at this point. You can look at guys like Charlie Strong in college football and say that experience doesn't make you an expert, but when you look at his recent success (89-14, 53-1 in conference play), it paints a picture of someone who does in fact know what they're doing.
2. Fit
   Could only imagine that during interviews this was the easiest box that Underwood checked. Born and raised less than 3 hours from campus in a Midwestern town of similar size with a similar culture doesn't seem like it would induce culture shock. From there, he's a K-State alum who's spent a good portion of his life on that campus-an institution well known to be nearly a Xerox copy of Stillwater, even alluded to by Holder in the intro conference as a "sister school". Underwood was happy in Nacogdoches and happy in Manhattan and he'll be happy in Stillwater. Jenny Carlson reported on how poor of a fit Ford was, mentioning the rumors of his wife's early request to commute from Edmond and Ford's supposed fit about not liking the Chevy provided by Johnson's of Kingfisher. Underwood's wife was quoted "this just feels like home" as they drove around town. Homerun.
3. Style of Play
   My friend Sam did an incredible post on PistolsFiring looking into what Underwood does offensively and boy was that fun to hear about. Ford peaked at maximizing Byron Eaton and not messing up the incredible game that James Anderson has, but proceeded to do his best Scott Brooks impression offensively by rolling the ball out and telling the guys light it up. SFA last year was incredibly efficient and almost Spurs-like at their level, reversing the ball and patiently, methodically waiting for the flow of the offense to reveal the best shot. At his intro, he alluded to how the closer to the basket you get, the better chances you have at making them. I don't expect Coach U to be a data analytics darling pulling corner 3s, but I'm incredibly excited about what he provides from a structural standpoint. And I haven't even gotten into the fact that he had the most favorable turnover ratio in college basketball!
4. Circumstances
   My goodness, is there a more difficult conference for a coach to walk into? His direct competition is as follows:
   Bill Self, Lon Kruger, Shaka Smart, Tubby Smith, Jamie Dixon (the other "rookie" to the league), Scott Drew, Bruce Weber, Steve Prohm and Bob Huggins
   Wow. Now, Ford didn't leave the cupboard completely barren, and it's a good thing the new offense only calls for one big, but my goodness that's a dearth of experience and wisdom. The days of cupcakes are long gone in this conference and it should make for a competitive environment if there ever was one.
   Another plus is that you're no longer following one of the most successful coaches in college basketball history. Coming on stage after Eddie is a monumental task that no one is excited to follow but Ford is a different story. Underwood will have that in his favor. Everything looks to be lining up for a new era, assuming we give a little bit of time for him to readjust to the world of Big 12 basketball.  

Bottom line: Coach Underwood looks to bring a gritty, hard nosed, disciplined brand of basketball back to Stillwater. While he comes across as extremely relateable, we can't forget that he comes from Huggins-Martin-sidelines will be intense. But the days of fluffy defenses and stagnant hero ball driven offenses are over, and one thing I fully expect is to see a true, Cowboy team walk on the court this fall. One that fans can be proud of.